Faced with mounting alarm in the US over his trade war, Donald Trump has resorted to his stock-in-trade of name calling. He has invented a new word to describe his critics: “Panican”.
He took to his Truth Social platform to defend himself against those opposed to his tariffs, who include some who have strongly supported him in the past.
He told them: “Don't be Weak! Don't be Stupid! Don't be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!).”
Trump did not explain the origin of his new word, though it does not take a genius to work out that it is a combination of “panic” and “American”. It also has a distinct echo of “Republican”, Trump’s own party.
The president did not say who he considered to be members of his imaginary Panican Party.
In the absence of this, the Independent has compiled a list of potential candidates of Trump’s Panican Party, based on their comments and actions in recent days.
The most prominent Panican contender is Trump’s hitherto best known cheerleader, billionaire Elon Musk. He appeared to signal his disdain for the tariffs by posting a video of the most famous free marketeer of all, the late economist Milton Friedman.
Billionaire Bill Ackman, who backed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, warned of an “economic nuclear winter”,
Mr Ackman said: “Business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate. This is not what we voted for.”
Another Trump ally, Republican Pete Sessions of Texas, urged him to rethink the tariffs.
Mr Sessions told the BBC: “All Texans believe that a tariff is a tax and that it is not in the best interests of Americans or the free world to pay that extra money. The president is receiving more than enough feedback from people about a four trillion dollar stock market loss that was deep and stunning. The president must listen and I believe he will.”
Republican senator Ted Cruz warned the tariffs could damage the party’s political prospects. “If we are in a scenario 30 days from now, 60 days from now, 90 days from now, with massive American tariffs, and massive tariffs on American goods in every other country on earth, that is a terrible outcome.”
There have been similar messages from several leading business figures in America. Billionaire Ken Fisher, founder of Fisher Investments, said Trump’s tariffs were “stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, ignorant trade-wise and addressing a non-problem with misguided tools”.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase bank, said the trade wars could threaten the US’s long-term economic alliances: “The quicker this issue is resolved, the better because some of the negative effects increase cumulatively over time and would be hard to reverse.”
Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of the Duquesne investment firm and worth an estimated $11 billion, said he did “not support tariffs exceeding 10 per cent”.
Simon MacAdam, deputy chief global economist of Capital Economics consultancy, said businesses were likely to delay making investments due to the “sheer uncertainty” of Trump’s approach.
“If you are a mid-sized or even a large-cap company, you’re going to be very hesitant about what to do,” he said.
“If those tariffs are going to be negotiated back down again in a few months’ time, you’d be wasting your time investing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in new plants… in the US.”
Judging from such reactions, it would appear that the Panican Party has plenty of support in the US.
Trump clearly intended the jibe as an insult. But with growing fears that his tariffs could lead to catastrophe in America and the wider world it may come to be a badge worn with pride.
As President Trump didn’t say: “Je suis Panican.”
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